ABSTRACT
President Johnson authorized the sustained bombing campaign of North Vietnam, known as Rolling Thunder, on 13 February 1965, and actual bombing runs began on 2 March. The Johnson administration failed to acknowledge that Rolling Thunder represented a fundamental shift in policy from earlier reprisal raids, portraying it as a response to the attack on Pleiku rather than a previously developed plan to overcome Saigon's instability. President Johnson pressed America's Pacific allies to commit soldiers to South Vietnam's defense. South Korea sent 60,000 troops and Australia 8,000, but other nations such as New Zealand, Thailand, the Philippines, and Taiwan provided more modest contributions. Johnson implemented a bombing pause from Christmas Eve to the end of January 1966 to encourage negotiations. American advisors divided over the bombing halt's desirability, with McNamara pushing it and Lodge, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam commander General William Westmoreland, and commander of Pacific operations Ulysses S. Grant Sharp opposing it as an opportunity for enemy resupply.
